Please mommy, who will breathe for us?

From the kids as political pawn series comes this story of mold problems in one NYC apartment, resulting in a protest involving kids. (See clip.) The idea of a message on a mask is actually pretty cool, I just think adults should be wearing them, not kids. Maybe even leave a ton of them around town as part of a guerilla effort. Throw a url and scary stat about mold on it and Bob’s your uncle. Mold is a serious issue and I’m not making light of the kids at all. Unfortunately, my mold ‘cred’ includes my son’s exposure to it here, where a few of his classmates ended up in the hospital.

Ultimately, we watched the school be demolished while he spent a year being bused around to other schools as a new one was eventually built. It’s then you learn a lot of mold fun facts! Like, as cool as the mask idea is, they’re only for dust and useless for any serious lung protection. (You need a respirator that covers the entire face.) As the clip shows, even small amounts of water undetected can lead to growth which might trigger health issues. Some people show no ill effects for some time while others can become ill right away.

Fixing the problem. Okay, like bleach? Doesn’t work. Grows back even stronger in a few weeks. Insurance coverage? Just thinking of mentioning the word to them and your rates go up. Remediation? Okay, well, if they don’t have to demo the entire house, figure 15-20 grand and up just for a few rooms. Why? Well, because only certified contractors are allowed to scam you do the work. Help from the government? Uh, forget that. There are still no standards established by the EPA as to what constitutes acceptable safe exposure to it.

Unfortunately, you learn this stuff the hard way.

But hey, that mask idea might even make it into CA.